>> this is al jazeera america i'm tony harris. dignitaries are converging on south africa to pay their respects to nelson mandela. pentagon's plans for central african republic. coming up. power outages across the country, all because of one big storm that is still causing trouble.

radio. >> world leaders from nearly 100 nations are making their way to south africa to honor one man: nelson mandela. a public memorial service will be held for the iconic leader tomorrow. ali velshi is in johannesburg with more on the di dignitaries arriving in south africa. >> the dignitaries are coming. some are still on their way. i was on the plane with jimmy carter, he spoke to me, he said in all the years he has known nelson mandela, nelson mandela never thanked him for what the american government did to end apartheid. here is why. >> i would say after i had many talks with nelson mandela, i never heard him say that he was grateful to the united states. he was greafer to cuba, he was -- greafer t grateful to ott

spoke up for him when he was still in prison. he was grateful to others who condemned the apartheid regime. but i don't think he felt his freedom and the change that took place in south africa was attributable to the united states. >> bottom line is you know tony, you and i scwuf discussed this e other day, the united states and great britain didn't go as far as they could have, to end apartheid, something nelson mandela never actually forgot. there's the dignitaries and everybody else in this country, who did without for so long that nelson mandela did so much to liberate. sandton is one of the most are luxury 80 oust place in south

africa, but the places right nearby were substandard, didn't have running water in some cases. the government has been working since apartheid to build homes and give them the facilities they need. we were in shanty towns where there was garbage and rats running around. people were dissatisfied, they wanted more out of this government. there is not enough education for them and the jobs aren't plentiful enough, the pay is not plentiful, the housing is substandard. they feel they have not made any progress and in many cases they have stopped hoping for it. they said we need another government. there is a lot of pride in nelson mandela but there remains mostly because of economics a lot of advertis dissatisfaction. in his time or in his memory he hasn't been able to bridge the economic gap. tony.

>> ali velshi. thank you. jonathan betz is here. jonathan. >> it is going to be a who's who of royals, celebrities, a leader of every major country will be in south africa, 100 have rscped so far. the queen of gland can't make it but david cameron can. mandela also close with cuba so its president, rool castro, -- raul castro will be there. hassan rouhani is coming. put not israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. he is concerned about the high security cost. the dalai lama will be

there. ful of johannesburg wip be shut down. an entire airport will be set aside for just the vips. security will be as tighter as it's ever pen. >> i'm sure the teams charged with the protection of the dignitaries are lee a liaising h the south african police. >> likely be the world's largest memorial service in decades. tony. >> all right, boy, that will be. and it's happening in just a few hours' time. jonathan, thank you. many towns are celebrating, the milestones that mandela achieved in south africa but as allen

schauffler reports. >> it's also the heart of high end retail in johannesburg in one of the richest districts in this country. and as we found out today, many of the people who work in this neighborhood as you might expect live in a very different world. mandela square mall in sandton, some of the richest retail space in south africa and a few tbloks awablocksaway is a different st. they sell what they make, seven days a week. >> on a good day they might make $45. on a bad day, they say, less than 3, and some days, nothing. they live and create their wire pieces in the bez valley of johannesburg. recycling street trash into instant art. with another friend they rent this single room at just $100 a month. they are keenly away of where

and how the money flows here. >> the people with money they already have money. if you don't, you struggle to -- trying to make a living. >> is it hard? >> it is hard. >> self employed and at this work for the last ten years they feel they're doing pretty well compared to many in this city. not far away inside of the commercial high rises of sandton is alexandria township where persistent groining grinding poferlt shapes lives. the remains of his house bears his prisoner number from decades of incarceration. earning $2 a day or less, the unemployment rate is about 25% and most of those unemployed are young. alfie and claudia say they are

not disappointed but the government -- >> i wish to have more. when none of this is done you get another face and make your future bright. >> so things aren't too bad but they wouldn't mind if thinks were just a little bit better. the people with the money had have the money. they don't think much of that money is flowing downhill into alexandria and the bez valley. >> al jazeera america will provide further coverage of the memorial. i will be back early, covering the service, our coverage begins at 4:00 a.m. eastern, 1:00 pacific. fighting in central african republic began last month, there won't be any u.s. troops on the

ground. defense secretary chuck hagel ordered the military to transport troops into burundi to central african republic, pentagon officials say they believe immediate action is necessary to avert a humanitarian tragedy. france says it will start disarming fighters and if necessary they will do it by force. nazalie mushari takes us to the capital, bu bangui. >> he says he's just a local businessman. the french intervene ordering people to move away. they arrest the muslim man, taking him away. in another suburb of the city, a man is carried to safety. he's been stabbed.

locals him of being part of antibalica, a maintain christian group. >> translator: we found this man walking, he had two grenades. we asked him where he was from, he couldn't tell us. he wanted to blow up the gren easdz. >> there are thousands of -- gregrenaregrenades. >> told to move away from the vehicle. french soldiers here say that they found weapons and grenades inside the cars of these men. their cars have been confiscated, you can see they have been arrested, hands tied behind their backs and phones taken as well. these are the same people responsible for an exchange of fire earlier close to the airport. these men will be taken to the international military base at

the airport. >> our priority is the same for all the soldiers here. it is to secure this zone to give a little more peace and a future for these people. >> most people here welcome what is happening but they want the french to do more. >> translator: we're really happy with what the french have just done to disarm the seleka. take the weapons from the armed houses. >> these are tense times. there is no armies or police on the streets. only some african forces. and french soldiers. the fear is, with no rule of law, there will be mob justice. after days of killing, some people have had enough. they're out for revenge. nasane mushiri, bangui.

>> coast to coast, a deadly combination, creating dangerous driving conditions across much of the country and over 1500 flights have been cancelled nationwide. al jazeera usher careshi with more. >> while the snow that fell most of the day in the area has stopped, i dot has given it the all clear, but the arctic temperatures continue. the high reaching the lower 20s was reached about 9:00 in the morning today and those temperatures are dropping. by about 7:30 this evening when the bears are playing the dallas cowboys the temperature will be about 16°. it will feel more like below zero at that time and chicagoans are going to have to continuing to bundle up. there have been arctic conditions as far south as texas, also incidents in

minnesota when they got two feet of snow, pileups in wisconsin on sunday, 30 pileups between chicago and milwaukee, a result of those slick conditions. and these arctic temperatures are not expected to let up any time soon. >> what is next for the big storm? kevin is here, kevin. >> we have a lot to talk about. first of all we have blizzard warnings for the north. the wind and snow is coming together really reducing the visibility. also here towards the east a lot of people are on the roads and we expect to see quite a bit of mixed prescription. if you are on 76, 276 or 776, which is located maryland, delaware, new jersey area big problems. we are looking at the temperatures beginning to drop, washington 37, philadelphia 38. these are the warnings in effect. can you see winter storm warnings, that means it's either

happening or imminent that we have a situation with the winter storm that causes a serious situation with traffic or life. snow specific problem across eastern pennsylvania, new jersey, connecticut, as well as we are going to see those temperatures dropping significantly across the northern part. right now fargo, 32°, but with the wind chill it feels more like fargo, minus 20°. tony back to you. >> stand your ground law, a 72-year-old patient is dead after wangd onto someone else's property. also, intelligence agencies may be looking for terrorists in a virtual arena.

al jazeera america is growing and now more americans are getting the high quality, original, in-depth reporting al jazeera america is known for. >> to find out more about al jazeera america go to aljazeera.com

judge pros cierts in georgia are deciding whether to charge a

homeowner for shooting and killing a 72-year-old alzheimer's patient after wandering into his yard. focus attention on energiesly are controversial stand your ground laws. tell us the story, what happened there. >> well, tony here's the thing. i talked to the sheriff's office earlier today and sheriff wills explained this is not -- pr wilson has explained this is not a situation he's seen before. the d.a.'s office session he hopes to have this wrapped up boulevard christmas. the trigger was pulled but does that fall under the stand your ground law. >> on a cold night before

thanksgiving a tragedy. >> he probably should have waited in the home until law enforcement arrived unless there had been a more immediate threat. >> sheriff steve wilson is talk approximating the shooting death of 72-year-old pronld westbrook -- ronald westbrook. wilson said what happens next is complex. this is the home where joe hendrix and his fiancee were sleeping. westbrooke tried the door handle, rang the bell and with dogs barking, he walked around the side of the house. frightened, hendricks called police. hendricks armed himself while his fiancee stayed on the phone with police. still waiting for a patrol car. according to reports repeatedly

called for the man to identify himself. getting no response, he fired. hendricks said westbrook continued to approach, this time, a fatal shot. deputies arrived, six minutes later. >> there's no law that i've been able to find that he did anything wrong by exiting his home to protect his property. >> whether that applies to the shoot and kill situation, residents are forming their own opinion as to whether he should have actually pulled the trigger. >> i think he should have waited for the police. >> i kind of have mixed feelings. there are people who will jump the gun, every time they are pushed a bit, they will pull their weapons. it's like the conceal carry law. >> if i felt i was in danger i would shoot. >> do you think he maid the

right decision? >> i do. >> when deputies explained westbrook suffered from alzheimer's, maybe confused and felt he was home, hendricks broke down. the district attorney is still considering whether to fry joe hendricks -- to try joe hendricks. westbrook leaves behind his wife of 50 years. one thing we should note here is that the state of georgia does not have a retreat law within their stand your ground. what that basically means is if a citizen feels their life is being threatened or their property is at risk that they can take out a pistol or a fireman -- firearm and shoot at will. because of that the the situation is going to be a challenge for the district attorney's office here in walker county. the alzheimer's association is

advising people to be on the lookout for elderly folks who seem qualified. if they are seen walking on the side of the road or walking onto your property they should be patient, wait for the police, don't overreact. tony, a tough situation, we'll see how it turns out likely before christmas. >> and to add another note of irony to this, were you telling me earlier that westbrook actually -- that police officers actually saw westbrook on the road before this happened? >> yes. unfortunately, at about 2:30 a.m. officers were driving down one of the county roads, westbrook was out with his two dogs walking them. he also had a significant handful of mail that he was grabbing from people's mailboxes. he was confused, he was wandering, but when the police apprehended him on the side of the road, asked him if he was oscar, he responded everything's

fine i'm walking the dogs, getting my mail and i'm headed home soon. so clearly, the officials perhaps overlooked the situation. to say the least, tony. >> robert gray, robert, appreciate it, thank you. detroit's troubles are having a ripple effect across the country. the city's bankruptcy sets a precedent how other cities handle their economic problems. the city of stockton in northern california has few options to dig itself out of that hole. melissa chan explains. >> preparing for the holidays. a merry time of year for alfred and his wife carol. but in the back of their minds a not so merry prospect. a where former employee of the city of bankrupt stockton. >> we lose our medical care, if we lose our pension then i'll probably lose my house. >> in the era of boom before the

financial crisis bust stockton made some costly mistakes over building and pricey city projects, including a stadium and marina and an exorbitant plan for municipal employees. its plan made cuts just about everywhere, even in basic services such as police officers and firefighters. crime sky roblghted. >> this is -- skyrocketed. this is an ugly ugh hely thing. bankruptcy ask something we really don't want to do. after you get there you don't have a lot of options to get out. >> but one thing stockton would not do: cut pensions. it would allow benefits to grow at the same rate as before, that, say critics would not be sustainable. and it's where detroit answers the picture.

bankruptcy is handled by federal law. it could impact other cities and if the same judge makes the call to cut pensions you have a federal decision colliding with state laws. because we're dealing with the tension between states rights and the 10th amendment and the federal bankruptcy code this is likely to have to be decided at the supreme court level to get to a definitive answer. >> california state law protects public pensions. stockton has come up with other ways to reduce cost, including abandoning employee health care and passing a sales tax. >> we have made drastic reductions in our sales force which reduces the liability for the peptions going forward. we have also made drask are reductions in the pay our glows really proceed. >> go after stockton's pension fund, an unlikely prospect for

retired stockton city workers. >> we've already lost our medicals, we've taken a hit, others didn't but we did, take a big hit. >> it's become a complicated legal matter but one to follow closely for alfred and others like him across the country. melissa charn, al jazeera, stockton, california. a huge deal has got passengers asking, will air flight be more expensive? american airlines and u.s. airways have completed their merger. four airlines now control 80% of the country's flights. david shuster is sitting in for ali velshi who is leading our team in johannesburg. dave, good to talk to you. what does the airline sector look like after this deal?

>> tony, the latest round of consolidation began in 2005, american eagle, delta, northwest a few years later, united, continual nenl, and southwest and air tran in 2011 and now that the air deal is done these new supersized american airlines, they reduced the amount of 7 carriers to just four today. and the key is is whether or not these four. obviously that e means less competition for some markets but what does it mean for overall markets? they go as fears the justice department. >> what does history tell us about that? >> according to a report issued by price waterhouse coopers, before the latest merger mainan began and 2007. 2011.

what has changed is the number of fees that passengers don't have to pay for things like luggage. so overall the fees are actually larger, occupying a larger chunk of what the airlines have been doing to bring in money. >> sold its remaining stock in general motors, how did that bailout work out? >> so tony, the federal government essentially gave nearly $50 billion in a settlement. taxpayers got back nearly 'nother million, because gm was saved, and the value of the stock and whatnot. the united states government lost about $10 million and gm has done very well and for people who were fearful that this might bankrupt the government, the government only lost $10 billion on gm and oh by

the way the government actually made money on its bailout of chrysler. this turned out to be not the problem that people feared. >> reel money here at the top of the hour on is al jazeera. america. a revolutionary new cancer treatment, doctors are attacking the disease with a modified form of the virus that causes aids.

>> welcome back to al jazeera america. here are your top of stories. world leaders are making their way to south africa to pay tribute to nelson mandela. president obama and the first lady took off on air force 1. secretary of defense chuck hagel ordered the u.s. military to

transport troops from burundi to central african republic. a blast of severe weather wreaked havoc across the northeast. causing car accidents pileups, i-95 corridor from washington, d.c. to boston tomorrow. the clock is ticking once again for congress. for lawmakers it is the final week of the year. both houses in washington at the same time and both houses facing a laundry list of items to be voted on. the budget, a new spending bill would help avoid a government shutdowns like the one in october. libby casey joins us from capitol hill. hammering out a budget deal isn't the only thing congress is trying to accomplish this week. what else tops that agenda? >> that's right. the farm bill expires and with

that, things that affect dairy prices and subsidies, a defense bill and we are seeing some signs of movement or progress tony. leaders of the house armed services committee say they feel they have a deal on the defense thorgs pact. we'll watch for that to be developing, they would like the house to vote on it before it gasms out -- gavels out on friday. progress in terms of congress being able to pass legislation in a united way. we did see reauthorization of a bill that authorizes plastic guns. passed by unanimous consent. it secludes 3d created guns. this was an issue that came up because what this law does is bans guns from being made solely of plastic. it has to have some metal component so it sets off metal

detectors. some democrats including chuck schumer, wanted to make sure those pieces weren't totally being made of are plastic. here is schumer with his idea on this. >> what we would ideally like to do the senator from florida and i, is to say that those guns including those that are purely plastic should be illegal and a gun must have some metal in it that can't be removed easily, and those guns would be legal. but those guns couldn't be smugd through metal detectors. >> they were trying to get this loophole as they call it closed. dment happen. so -- didn't happen. so the standard law goes back into effect. it will go on the president's desk, it will probably be signed

by auto-pen. since the president is in south africa. >> there are a number of things out there. >> even though they took place place-- took care of thing plastic gun bill, they have until jean 15th to get the government up and running. here are some crucial deadlines. unemployment benefits, long term unemployment that expwiers december 28th. that's -- expires on december 28th. the farm bill, they've either got to find a short term extension of it or get it passed. otherwise, the farm bill reverts back to 1940 policies if you can believe that. >> libby casey, libby thank you. congress is debating whether to extend emergency unemployment benefits once again. the program provides the unemployment payments beyond the 26 weeks most states provide.

and as jennifer glasse reports, finding work is very difficult. >> first thing sarah does is get her unemployment benefits. >> first thing, get the money. >> the rest of the week her full time job is getting a job. >> 3:00 in the morning i was up on the computer. >> she joined the ranks of the long term unemployed last summer, jobless at least 25 weeks. >> i send out at least 25 resumes a day or more. >> her last job brought her $28 an hour. things are tighter now. >> it would be better to move back to the standard 26 weeks, the idea of unemployment benefits is to be a cushion when you lose work, to give you a little bit of time to search. it's not to be a permanent replacement for having a job. >> new jersey's unemployment

rate has consistently been 1% higher than the rest of the country. nationwide, 1.3 million people stand to lose their benefits if congress doesn't extend them. the state with the most long term unemployed is california. in san jacinto, vanessa has been out of work for 15 months. her husband will has also been looking for work. >> for me the job search has been grueling. >> she was on disability for a while and welfare and registered for unemployment three months ago. if congress doesn't extend benefits her $152 a week will drop to $132. if that happens she's worried about how she'll feed her new baby and ten-year-old and pay the rent. >> i say for those who are in upper government who go and have $100 lunches and difference, we live off $2.50 a day. of food. >> she says she will try ofind

odd jobs, will do whatever she can to make ends meet. and of critics, she says she doesn't want to live this way. >> all the motivation in the world does not make someone hire you. >> and for sarah -- >> all right, great, bye-bye. i got a job interview, y'all. >> jennifer glasse, al jazeera, newark, new jersey. >> for a while now the world has been eyeing the nsa, twitter, facebook, google, microsoft just to name a few. in an open letter posted online it calls for tighter security on collection of personal data, it also promotes individual privacy. the latest group of, reportedly

spied on gamers to counterterrorism. >> the nsa document shows the concern that the nsa has that terrorists could communicate, transfer funds, via this these types of games. this one is second life frequent and here you can build a character you can communicate with others, chat, you can guy things online, you can can buy land, you can buy using what's called lyndon dollars and those can be converted to regular u.s. dollars. another popular game is called world of war craft. some 7 million paid subscribers per month use this game. in this game you have some characters, you go around and fight against monsters and these are games where people can make friends online very easily, communicate very easily.

i spoke with justin elliot from pro-publica, one of the agencies that broke these stories, and asked him about ways they can check. >> just like you would in real life try recruit informants of people they thought were interesting or had some sort of intelligence value. the other way was to collect data the same way that the nsa collects data from the internet but filtering it in order to see communications in games like world of war craft or who was talking to who in the social works. gather any intelligence from these games, second life hasn't commented on this and pooh spokes mawnl for the maker of world of war craft said we are unaware of any surveillance taking place. if it was it would have been done without our knowledge or

permission. and tony, there's been a lot of twitter reaction to this, a lot of mockery kind of making light of the situation, dervica writes if the nsa can get any intelligence in trade shot out of world of war craft they deserve any penny they, get them to fund his game time, kudos to you, surveillance nerve. it says national security agency world of war craft, tony. >> thank you have a, shutting down the country arps main state news agency, the new agency will promote russia's image around the world. heading all of this, someone who is openly 18th gay. peter sharp the reports from moscow.

>> this isn't just any news agency, it's one of the biggest in the world. it's got bureaus in 30 countries. one of the main sponsors of the sochi facilities. so was this expected? well, not according to local journalists at the organization. first they knew was when the news came on the kremlin's website and a man chosen to run the organization, that's dimitri krisiliof, he is a well-known anchor, talk show host, often venomous comments, very antigay, very antiopposition, very antiamerican. and his appointment will be seen basically i think as a further

example of putin and the kremlin putting pressure on a very already heavily regulated media. >> cancer researchers release stunning results in the fight against leukemia. saturday the university of pennsylvania announced the success of its advance treatment. dozens of patients tested have remained cancer-free for years. as al jazeera's chris bury reports now the treatment involves a customized cocktail of the patient's own immune system and a modified hiv virus. >> for bob lovette, he was preparing to die. >> i think in 2012 it was one of the things i did do. i actually worked on the will. pretty dismal year. >> a decade earlier while based

in singapore, a routine physical revealed that lovette had a form of leukemia, cancer of the blood. >> what did you think? >> leukemia, the first question was, when am i going to die. >> at first chemotherapy helped but then the cancer came back with a vengeance. this time an even nastier strain. >> i am dying. i'm living on transfusions at that point. and you can't live on transfusions forever. >> his time running out, bob lovette decided on a hail mary, a radical new approach at the university of pennsylvania. >> to be even eligible for the protocol you have to have no hope left. meaning there is no fda therapy that would work. in bob's case he had about a

five pound tumor in his spleen and other organs. >> researchers are treating leukemia in a revolutionary way. taking t cells from the sickest patients and then genetically engineering them to attack cancer. with forms of the aids virus or hiv that has been disabled so it cannot cause the disease. the newly transfused cells are reinfused back into the patient's blood. only weeks after the test, bob lovette had his body tested. >> there was no more leukemia. it was very griferg. gratifying. >> 31 experienced complete remissions. of those only six have seen their leukemia return. the results just published are

preliminary but encouraging. the scientists involved believe the treatment pioneered here to battle leukemia may also fight other forms of deadly cancer. bob lovette is pruning his plum trees and taking on consulting work, his cancer hid him. >> it's just amazing that something can happen that quickly. a miracle. just a miracle. >> al jazeera's chris burry bury recording. you can catch this 9:00 eastern on al jazeera america. still ahead, a members-only supermarket with some of the lowest prices in europe. some of the food items were mislabeled and misshaped.

>> this isn't a new channel, this is a watershed moment in media for america. >> this entire region is utterly devastated. >> people our here are struggling. >> the fire jumped the highway we took earlier. >> your average viewer want's to actually understand how the health care law is going to help them or hurt them. >> they know they can get extremist bickering somewhere else. >> people say that we're revolutionary. our revolution is just going back to doing the best in journalism. >> this is the place to go watch high quality journalism, period.

>> cuts to the u.s. government food stamps program have affected more than 40 million people across the country. the money that pays for the aid is dwindling. communities in cash-strapped europe may have found the solution. it is called a social supermarket and it has prices as much as 70% lower than other shops. need barker has the story. >> as austerity measures take hold nationwide, here in the village of gold thorp the poor are getting poorper. some have been rhyming on handouts and emergency food banks to survive. 500 locals have been offered

exclusive membership along with key cards to access the store. >> it's about using surplus food for social good and the people that benefit most for that are the people on the cusp of food poverty. >> all the food and goods here come from the country's largest expr markets, for sum reason thrown away, misshapen or mislabeled. but this story is much more than low cost food, it's about encouraging people into mainstream society. >> people out here don't have a lot of money so we're finding a way. >> similar stores have opened in spain and greece during the global recession. 20 more are planned for the u.k. next year. nigel green is also set to benefit from the new supermarket. he manages spiraling costs by growing his own food.

>> prices in supermarkets and stuff are really high. are it's really high. as morrisons, all them, you have got to get them about. >> like many this winter, nigel is often forced to choose between eating and heating his family home. >> we have probably 15 pound a week on electric or gas. you have to make a choice on what you want. >> the u.k. is the world's 6th largest economy but one in five live below the state poverty line. hard times now call for creative solutions. neve barker, al jazeera south yorkshire. >> ross is here with the day in sports. ross, i understand there was a

huge controversy as to who will pay in the college football championship game. >> thank goodness. no controversy. florida state versus number 2 auburn, make no mistake, both teams deserve to be here. the seminoles haven't won since the 1999 season and come january 6th rose bowl in pasadena, as to the auburn tigers they seem to be the team of destiny, worst to first, 8th straight year that an sec team will be playing for the national championship. graham, what do you take away from the college football system especially the shakeup in the last ten days? >> i guess you would say there's more parity than we had

anticipated, coming ininto the end of the season, to watch alabama go down, oregon go down, bay, it was so crazy to not know who was going to play in the national championship until the final weekend i think it made it more exciting but definitely kept you on the edge of your seat as you watch things unfold. >> graham, they gave auburn all they could handle on saturday night and watching auburn and their unstoppable offense for the past few weeks, it seems like the college game, especially in the sec, the sec has opened up things on the offense and everybody is outscoring everybody. >> i blame johnny manziel on this. he just started working his magic, running all over the place, scoring all those points. i blame the coach of a&m to show it could work. teams kind of adapt their

personnel offensively to kind of fit in that mold because it worked so well with a&m. the defense you know, it's time to not label the sec a defensive league anymore. i am not sure it's ready for the big 12 to be a major offensive league but definitely getting there. >> how impressed have you been with florida state, and jameis winslow? >> i think he's gotten better. his worst game came against duke in the acc championship and he threw for over 300 yards. if that's your worst game, i think he has been pretty fantastic this year. he's no doubt the best player in college football right now and i think the way he has handled this year, speaks to his maturity. especially for a red shirred

freshman. second year in the row graham, is this the change where upper classmen are picking up things quicker and developing quicker? >> you look like johnny manziel, he has a private quarterbacking coach. jameis winston has got god-given talent. even before he took a snap with florida state he has proved us right. he has not let us down all season. i think these guys are coming in, i think they're more composed, i think they're better-trained, they have been in the weight room more and i think they're able to compete with a lot of these tougher, older guys, more so than they have been in the past. >> all right graham, besides the bcc game, which bowl game intrigues you the most? >> this is not a great bowl year, there are a lot of

matchups that are not looking that great. a lot of people are looking at alabama oklahoma, not because it's a great game but how alabama rebounds, we all want to see that. alabama coach bob stufe talks about how the sec is not that great, how they get a lot of unfair praise handy on them. i'd like to see how he does against alabama's offense, alabama's defense. you got south carolina and wisconsin in the capitol 1 bowl, that is maybe the best matchup, outside the best known bowls. >> four quarterbacks, two running backs, jameis winston and johnny manziel. >> thank you, ross. real money tonight, david

shuster in for ali velshi. >> coming up on real money. how the american airlines u.s. airways merger could affect the little guys. plus tens of thousands of dollars you have already earned may be waiting for you to claim. it's a report you can't afford to miss tonight on real money.

(vo) al jazeera america wetñ

>> hello again, before i take you to the united states i'm going to take you over towards turkey because we have hundreds of thousands of people there living in refugee camps from syria. and what's happening is we're getting closer to of course that very, very difficult time of the year where it's -- the temperatures are dropping, many people here are without or with very less amounts of cooking fuel and heating fuel. this has been going on for years ever since the conflict has been going on. this is something to remember, this has really no end in sight as we are going through the next years or so. here in the united states, cold

air, from canada, we've been watching this for days. we have blizzard warnings from north dakota, if you are traveling on the highways, area of red says blizzard warnlings, what that means is visibility could be less than a quarter-mile as well as winds higher than 35 miles per hour. so very dangerous situations if you are on the roads. because the visibility comes down so quickly. right now, in bismarck, temperatures are 12° there. minneapolis tomorrow if you are flying in or out unfortunately, expect delays, 11°, lots of snow. tuesday little bit better, then we're going to see not much of an improvement towards thursday. for chicago it's not the snow, it's actually the temperatures, lows in the single digits, highs, not until friday or saturday it starts to warm up. that's a look at your national weather, have a great evening.

america, with a look ata, today's top stories. a town in south africa is preparing for nelson mandela's funeral. that's where the former pettigrew up. president obama will attend along with current and former leaders from more than 100 countries. is u.s. will airlift african forces and equipment to bengai. sectarian violence has engulfed the country since march. uu.s. airway the carriers completed their merger today, creating the world's largest airline. four airline now control 80% of fli i